Larry Smarr, Gretchen Rubin Get into Health(care) & Happiness

Our presentations of “The Atlantic Meets the Pacific” forum continue into the New Year, but first we’re wrapping up 2012 with two stellar presentations from the three-day forum held at UC San Diego in October.

Premiering tonight (Dec. 17) at 9pm (and online now) is “The Human Laboratory: One Researcher’s Quest to Personalize Medicine,” a fascinating conversation between Calit2 director Larry Smarr, the subject of a recent piece in “The Atlantic,” and author Mark Bowden, who wrote the screenplay for Katherine Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” and riveting works of non-fiction like “Black Hawk Down.” In this program, Smarr and Bowden talk about Smarr’s determination to understand everything about his own body, and how that kind of knowledge will become standard in the future of healthcare.

And what better to way to complete the year than with a look at the science and philosophy of happiness with none other than Gretchen Rubin, author of the bestseller “The Happiness Project.” In “Don’t Worry, Be Happy Now: The Science and Philosophy of the Happiness Movement,” Rubin chats with James Fallows, National Correspondent for The Atlantic, about finding contentment in everyday life. That program premieres Dec. 28 at 7pm, but you can start your happy journey early by watching it online now.